Keith Mott's

London & South East Classic Club “Forum”

THE 2008 TRIP TO TARBES

I made my first trip convoying to the south of France twelve years ago, when Doug Went and I took the L&SECC birds to Pau for the longest old bird race. Doug had a very bad opinion of the site at that time and I must say on my first visit I was shocked how bad this famous liberation site was. I came back and wrote how bad it was at the Camping Municipal and even with back up photographs and video, no one seemed to take any notice or be bothered.

The 2007 season saw me visit Pau with the L&SECC pigeons for the sixth time and as I’ve pointed out, I think it's common knowledge that I don’t like the site. The car park site, in my opinion, is far too small and it is sited next to playing fields which have large light staunching, with thick wires strewn between them. On my first visit to Pau, I pointed out how bad the site was and was told that I could liberate on the playing field, which I did in the 2000 season, but this was far from perfect, with birds flying near the staunching and wires. Big liberations, including the National Flying Club liberated on the playing field and not in the car park area. This site must rate as one of the most important liberation sites on the Continent as many National and International races are liberated there. I don’t know how they liberate more than a thousand pigeons in comfort, as the site is far too small and has all those obstacles. In every other aspect, the site is first class, with full watering for the birds and facilities for the convoyer, although in recent season there has been a few problems with gipsies. About 300 yards down the road there is a massive car park, which serves the local sports stadium and this would be a brilliant new liberation site, in fact it is now used for releasing the International birds at Pau instead the now deleted railway site.

I had a good feeling about the Tarbes site, with the excellent results achieved by the National Flying Club out of there in recent seasons and Geoff Allan, the NFC convoyer, had always said he likes the site very much. We, the London & South East Classic Club committee, gave Tarbes a try this season on my recommendation that the Pau site was a very poor liberation site and it proved to be a good move, as it was one of the best sites in France that I’ve visited. The liberation site is the very big car park of Geant Casino Super Market in Laldbere, Tarbes and it is quiet there, being mostly empty as it is the over flow parking at the rear of the complex. The liberation area is vast, with a few light stanches in it, but they are not to close to the transporters and do not impede the safe release of the pigeons. The site has the supermarket, toilets for the convoyers, a limited water supply and no shower facilities. One of the best sites in France, I think! Tarbes is a lot closer to the Pyrenees Mountains than Pau and with the wonderful clear condition, the snow covered peaks made a brilliant back drop to the liberation site. Our liberation at 05.00hrs on the Saturday morning was a bit magical with the sun on the Pyrenees behind the liberation site! This was my seventh trip to the south of France with the L&SECC pigeons and I have only seen the Pyrenees Mountains once before, as they are normal clouded out and this was about eleven years ago, on a trip to Pau with Doug Went. I hope we go back to Tarbes next season, it would be very disappointing to see the L&SECC and CSCFC go back to the Camping Municipal at Pau, which I think is no where near as good as the Supermarket car park at Tarbes.

We arrived at the Tarbes Geant Casino Supermarket liberation site at to the welcoming site of blue sky and sun shine. My assistant for the race Brian Goodwin and I kept the water topped up all day because of the 30 plus degree temperature and lack of shade at the site and at the end of the first day we had nearly run out of water again. One phone call from our French site agent, Jacques Cenac, and the Tarbes fire brigade came and filled up our water tank at 06.45hrs on the Friday morning. Jacques is school head master and pigeon fancier, and I must say he is a great site agent, with nothing being to much trouble for him to make us welcome at Tarbes. He has a nice wife and three wonderful daughters who came to the liberation site for a chat. Mrs. Cenac told us it hadn’t stopped raining at Tarbes for a month and only cleared up couple of days before we arrived. The very high temperature was a great concern to me, but with the water toughs being filled up all the time the birds looked in ‘mint’ condition. I hang rows of baskets out of the transporter during the cool hours and this gives the inmates fresh air and a complete change of air in the lorry. The convoy had several water changes on their stay at Tarbes and were fed at 13.00hrs every day. I awoke on the Friday morning to a clear blue sky and sunshine at Tarbes, but after receiving a bad weather report of rain in the English Channel and Southern England from Steve Appleby back in Guildford, I decided to hold over. Friday evening saw a French transporter pull up on site with 1,200 birds from the Somme area (550 miles) to be liberated early on the Saturday morning. On the Saturday morning we were getting the transporter ready for liberation at 04.00hrs in anticipation of a good weather forecast from Steve and when I phone him at 04.45hrs he answered all my prayers, with first class conditions right through the whole race course. With a clear sky and the sun coming up in the East, I cut the strings and liberated the convoy at 05.30hrs in no wind. The birds cleared instantly in to the cloudless sky in one big batch and headed in a northerly direction. The French convoy were liberated at 06.15hrs and they also cleared outstandingly. The weather conditions on our drive back to Caen docks were perfect for 550 mile racing and the wind picked up to be light South on route.

On my drive through France, coming home from Tarbes my Mobile was ‘red hot’ with news that the race was a storming success and all of the organizations in my convoy recorded many day pigeons. Clare Norman, secretary of the CSCFC, rang me twice on the day of the race and on my return from France, and informed me that they had enjoyed a very good race with about 43 first birds verified on the day and about 108 birds at 13.00hrs on the Sunday. Brilliant stuff! Congratulations to Clare Norman and her husband, Martin, who clocked a day pigeon to record 1st section, 4th open. Now the dust has settled on the L&SECC and CSCFC longest old bird race from Tarbes it would appear that every one enjoyed a great race, with plenty of pigeons recorded on the day of liberation.

A very special ‘well done’ to Darran and Des McFadden of Godalming who won the L&SECC Tarbes Classic and adding to the two 1st open SMT Combine wins they have recorded already this season. Brilliant pigeon racing! Thanks to Brian Goodwin and Steve Appleby for their very hard work and contributing to making this longest old bird Classic one of the best we have ever had!

Schofield & Greetham of Stanford Lee Hope

One of the workers at our South Ockendon marking station is Martin Greetham and it’s a great pleasure to see him and his partner, Dolorer Schofield, at the top of the Tarbes Classic result, recording 1st NE Section, 4th Open. Well done you two! They clocked their five year old blue cock at 18.51hrs, flying 572 miles and he was sent feeding a big youngster. The parents of this game cock were bred by George and Maureen Bates of Gravesend and he is not stranger to winning classic prizes, previously winning 24th open BICC Bergerac in 2006. Martin tells me the Bergerac race was very hard, with only five birds home on the day in the BICC and he also recorded a day bird to lift 2nd open.

He has been in partnership with Dolorer for 18 years and tells me, her father was the outstanding Essex pigeon fancier, the late Albie Holman. The partners are only interested in Channel racing and fly 12 pairs of natural racers to a 16ft x 6ft loft. They are paired up in March and are trained in the local club’s inland races, with the feed being a general ‘Irish’ type mixture. Martin has been racing pigeons since 1952 and has won countless premier positions through the years including: 1st and 2nd open Combine Lerwick (only sending two birds), 1st open Combine Fraserburgh, 1st open Combine Angouleme, 1st open Combine Le Ferte Bernard and 1st Federation Thurso five seasons on the trot. Brilliant pigeon racing! Scholfield & Greetham have had a go at the BICC Barcelona race in recent years and have won: 2003: 19th, 25th open, 4th open GDSBC (only 2 birds sent), 2004: 12th open, 2nd open GDSBC (only 2 birds sent), 2006: 8th open, 2nd open GDSBC.

John and Ann Rake of Caldicot won the W.S.R.N.F.C. from Pau (579 miles) in 2005, which was a very hard race and a couple of years ago I had the pleasure of visiting their loft in South Wales. The Pau National winner was the partners champion De Weerdt / Van Bruane dark chequer cock, ‘Steep Holme Boy’, and was raced on the natural system, being sent to the Pau National sitting 12 day old eggs. This wonderful cock was bred by the Essex partnership of Greetham & Schofield, who regularly swap youngster with the Rakes. ‘Steep Holme Boy’ was very nice in the hand, with quality silky feather and he won an R.P.R.A. Award for his Pau performance. Congratulations to Martin and Dolorer on their Tarbes Classic performance!

 Alan & Christine Lomax of Woking 

My ol’ friends from the Pyrford club, Alan and Christine Lomax, have had some good success in the L&SECC in recent seasons with their Busschaert hen, ‘Classic Blue Lady’, which has recorded: 2007: 22nd open L&SECC Guernsey 1. (old hens), 24th open L&SECC Guernsey 2. (old hens), 2008: 45th open L&SECC Alencon, 13th open L&SECC Tours. A brilliant record! This game hen came home from the Tours classic in 2008 with her keel skinned and bleeding, and still recorded 13th open. A few years ago Christine purchased six Busschaert squeakers from Oly Gittins of Cornwall for a present for Alan and ‘Classic Blue Lady’ was bred from two of those original birds.    

The partners have been winning major pigeon races for many years and 1988 season saw Alan and Christine win the longest Surrey Federation old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles) with 1,763 birds taking part. The partner’s Federation winner was an eight year old Corbett / Busschaert red chequer hen called ‘The 96 Hen’ and she was bred by the late Alec Martin of Worplesdon. Alec was also a past winner of the Surrey Federation from Bergerac. Alan said at the time that he wasn’t very interested in inland racing, with his whole pigeon management being geared to channel racing. Some of the partner’s best channel results then were: 1964: 1st club, 2nd Three Borders Federation Bordeaux (446 miles), 1970: 1st club, 5th Federation Nantes (282 miles), 1971: 1st club, 9th Federation Nantes, 1975: 1st club, 4th Federation, 10th SMT Combine (4256 birds) Niort (343 miles), 1st, 2nd club, 4th, 17th Federation,  15th SMT Combine (4775 birds) Avranches (183 miles), 2nd club, 8th Federation, 35th SMT Combine Bergerac, 1976: 1st club, 11th Federation Laval, 1982: 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 3rd Seven Counties Combine (3415 birds) Bergerac, 1985: 2nd club, 14th Federation, 44th SMT Combine Bergerac, 1986: 1st club Bergerac, 6th Federation, 30th SMT Combine Nantes 1987: 1st club, 4th Surrey Federation, 22nd SMT Combine (4452 birds) Wadebridge, 1988: 1st, 2nd club, 1st, 22nd Surrey Federation Bergerac. A wonderful loft performance!

Alan and Christine got married in 1981 and on moving to Old Woking that year formed their pigeon racing partnership. Christine was very interested in the pigeons and is the book keeper in the partnership, and took over as club secretary of the Horsell Inv. Club in 1989. She was the hard working secretary of the Pyrford club for an amazing 21 years! The partners had five lofts, which are cleaned out every day and Alan maintains that pigeons will race to an orange box if they are happy. The Lomax’s lofts are well ventilated and are kept as dry as possible, in winter and summer. The 35 pairs are raced natural as the partners liked hens for the longer races and pairing up is in March with racing from France in mind. The main families kept are Janssen and Busschaert obtained from Alec and Molly Martin, Cattrysse from Robin Creswick of Woking, but at this time mostly pigeons of the Krauth strain from John Everly. Alan runs a training programme for the Pyrford club members and his birds get regular tosses from Winchester and he feeds on a good general mixture, with added chicken pellets for the longer races. The Lomax’s live in a very rural area of Surrey, with their cottage being sited on a river bank and they get a lot of problems with Sparrowhawks and Minks, which kill they birds regularly. They normally wintered about 40 young birds bred from eight pairs of stock birds and 35 pairs of channel racers. Alan says he likes young bird racing, on the natural system flying to the perch, and gives them lots of training out of Winchester. Alan told me a funny, but true story about two of his young birds. The late Alec Martin gave him a pair eggs from his Red Janssen stock birds and after Alan reared them he let them out with his other youngsters, and those two went straight back to the Martin loft, a mile or so away. Strange, but true!

At this time Alan had been in the sport 48 years, starting racing in 1960, after catching the pigeon bug from fancier school mates as a 15 year old. In those early days he had the Wegg pigeons and received a lot of help from a near by fancier, the late Alec Martin. Alan’s second hobby was playing golf and his job is a green keeper at the Hoebridge Golf Centre. Alan and Christine are great workers for the sport and he was chief clock setter and Surrey Federation delegate for his club. Alan is still the club’s delegate to the Three Borders Federation, a job he has done since the early 1960’s. Alan’s favourite nest condition for the longer races is hens sitting about ten day eggs. Alan said when he started up it was an achievement to get a bird on the day from Niort, such is the advance in our sport in 50 years, that some times you can get a day bird from Pau (550 miles) and not get in the National result. Alan isn’t a show man, but helps out at his club shows to get some funds in the bank. Christine said when the partners pair up they try and pair the best performers together.

There you have it, Alan and Christine Lomax of Woking, two of the nicest people in pigeon racing! They are still racing their pigeons with great success to their lofts down by the river at Old Woking and its great see them get some outstanding performances in the London & South East Classic Club races.

Well that’s your latest L&SECC report and I hope my readers have enjoyed it! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!